Retailers stay tuned for multi-channel consumers

Strategies to attract mobile, Internet users grow in importance

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — News flash: Retailers get the idea that attracting today's consumer means going multichannel.

(THE NEWS: Retailers plan to spend more on e-commerce this year. Click here for the story.)

Online retail has been around for a while now, but it's come along way since its beginnings during the days of the late-1990s dot-com bubble. Today, consumers aren't just ordering books from Amazon.com — they're ordering a plethora of items online, and not just from their desktop computers, but from their mobile phones as well.

So what does this mean for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers? It means they have to draw a consumer who may not have the time or patience to make a trip to the store, and try to reach them where they're spending more and more of their time: in chairs in front of a computer, or just about anywhere with their phones in front of their faces.

According to a study last month by ComScore, 86 million Americans are now shopping on their smartphones, with 4-out-of-5 smartphone users accessing retail content. And a Deloitte study found that using apps and mobile websites while shopping accounted for a 5% increase in retail sales over the past year, equal to $159 billion in in-store sales.

But retailers — including those in the drug channel — are moving in already. Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy launched a mobile app for patients to manage their prescriptions on Tuesday, while Stop & Shop, owned by Ahold, said on Oct. 19 that its new Wayland, Mass., store would include features for mobile shopping, not to mention sister company Peapod's "virtual grocery store" concept.

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SPECIAL REPORTS

Are we in the midst of a beauty revolution? Perhaps. It is no secret that the ever-changing beauty category is all about trends, but one could argue that we are embarking on an especially interesting time in beauty as technology is changing the way consumers shop and new innovations strive to break through the noise.

In this beauty report, Drug Store News takes a deeper dive into some of the leading trends that are reshaping beauty.more ...

IN THIS ISSUE

In this issue, DSN examines PricewaterhouseCoopers' "Top Health Industry Issues for 2015;" takes you on a tour of Murad, shares beauty trends and insights and delves into location-based technology and how it is revolutionizing health, retail.Click here to view the issue.